SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 245 



or so. The fish were liberated at Piel Gas Buoy. In the 

 second experiment of the year the same methods were 

 adopted : the fish were caught and put into the Piel tanks, 

 where they were marked. This lot of plaice and flounders 

 were liberated in Barrow Channel about half-way between 

 Piel and Walney Point, that is, they were put out on 

 approximately the ground where they were caught. 

 Experiments III, IV, and V relate to the plaice found on 

 the small-fish grounds about Nelson Buoy, and in them 

 481 plaice and 15 soles were marked and liberated. It was 

 thought desirable to deal with different lots of plaice in 

 different months rather than with one much larger lot in 

 one particular month : in this way it became possible to 

 study the different migration paths taken at different times 

 in the year. Finally, Experiment VI was made in Ped 

 Wharf and Beaumaris Bays in November, the fish being 

 caught and marked just before the winter fishery on these 

 grounds had attained its full dimensions. In Experiments 

 III to VI the fish were caught, marked and liberated on 

 the S.S. James FletcJter. 



An attempt was made to mark soles. This had pre- 

 viously been attempted, using the same mark as in the 

 case of plaice, but the results were quite unsuccessful. 

 In 1913 we got some 50 special labels made. Each was a 

 strip of thin sheet silver about 1 cm. in width and about 

 2 cms. in length. At one end of this strip a little tongue 

 of metal projected out, and was then turned up at right 

 angles to the surface of the strip; at the other end was a 

 little hole. The strip was bent on itself so that the little 

 tongue fitted into the hole. Each label was marked Ij I 

 to L 50. It was fixed to the fish by clasping it on the free 

 border of the operculum on the coloured side, squeezing 

 the bent strip of silver by means of pliers until the tongue 

 was forced through the opercular edge into I he hole on the 



